As can occasionally happen in the new world of Kevin Smith, the writer/director/podcaster/film geek came online Tuesday and dropped a massive update on his upcoming film Tusk. Smith has tons of praise for the film, which finished principal photograph last month, and has only two more days of filming to go once a mystery actor becomes available.

While his original plan was to rush the film for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Smith is so happy with the final product he’s holding it back so he can add in those final scenes and give the film a “monster movie score!” He’s hired Chris Drake (The Dark Knight Returns animated films) to do that. Instead of showing the movie at Sundance, he’ll debut a trailer in Park City.

Read much more, including where Smith could film Clerks III, and see some artwork for the in-film podcast featuring Justin Long and Haley Joel Osment, below. Read More »

The first image from Kevin Smith‘s Tusk wasn’t a disappointment, exactly, but considering the film’s wackadoo premise — man tries to turn hostage into walrus-man hybrid — it was really rather tame. The craziest thing about it was how much older Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment looks these days.

Happily, the latest picture should do a much better job of satisfying horror fans’ craving for something weird. The filmmaker has just offered a new peek at the design for the bizarre half-walrus, half-man creature. Check it out after the jump.

We’ve heard lots about Kevin Smith‘s upcoming horror movie Tusk, but we haven’t heard where the beautiful girl fits in. We know Justin Long plays a podcaster who goes to interview an old man (Michael Parks) who then makes him dress up like a seal. There’s also a detective role with a big star set, though Smith is mum on exactly who plays him. Now the stunning Genesis Rodriguez, who appeared in The Last Stand, Casa de Mi Padre and Identity Thief, is in final negotiations for the film. Filming starts next month in North Carolina [Variety]

Wednesday, Kevin Smith posted a second guest blog post on The Hollywood Reporter. Like the first one, it primarily concerns his next movie, Tusk, and is filled with new information. The most important piece is, after some financing issues, the film not only got the money it needs, it starts filming November 4 in North Carolina. Second, it explains why Quentin Tarantino passed on a role in the film, that of a French Canadian detective. (Not the man in a walrus suit, as we reported based on other sites over the summer.) Read some highlights below. Read More »

In the past five years, if a small budget horror movie came out and made untold millions, odds are Jason Blum produced it. Blum is the force behind Blumhouse Productions, a production company who has a hand in the Paranormal Activity and Insidious franchises, as well as Sinister, The Purge and others. It’s the place to be for small budget, weird-ass movies.

Speaking of small budget, weird-ass movies, Kevin Smith recently wrote a column at the Hollywood Reporter about Tusk. Tusk is Smith’s likely next film, a horrific take on an Internet ad where an older man wants a lodger to dress as a human seal. He has Michael Parks and Justin Long attached to star.

Jason Blum was going to produce the film but, after working together for a weeks, Smith decided to mutually part ways with Blum in order to get the film done faster than the producer wanted to. Read More »

Clerks made Kevin Smith, but in order to make Clerks III, Smith will have to make something else. In a new interview, the writer/director/podcaster said his next film, Tusk, will be an “ivory bridge” to Clerks III. A way to make financing the sequel easier and also to work out some of the cobwebs from not having directed a film since 2011’s Red State.

Plus, Smith revealed that Justin Long has joined the cast of Tusk, opposite Michael Parks, as the man whom Parks hires to live in his house in a walrus suit. Production begins October 21. Read the quotes below. Read More »

In what’s become a Comic-Con tradition, Kevin Smith took the Hall H at Comic-Con Saturday night and arrived bearing gifts. Gifts in the form of news for his fans.

He said the Weinsteins are currently figuring out a budget for Clerks III, which will dictate when and where they shoot the film. But it’s happening. Smith also recently completed a script called Tusk, which is based on an online ad about a man who rents out a room in his house for free, as long as the person dresses as a walrus for two hours per day. He wants Michael Parks the play the lead, Quentin Tarantino as the victim and envisions the story as “the cuddly version of The Human Centipede.” Read More »